“Mining for gold” in the classroom A few weeks ago, I went into my son Chase’s class for tutoring. I’d e-mailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, “Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you’re sending home is math—but I’m not sure I believe him. Help, please.” She e-mailed right back and said, “No problem! I can tutor Chase after school anytime.” And I said, “No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me.” And that’s how I ended up standing at a chalkboard in an empty fifth-grade classroom while Chase’s teacher sat behind me, using a...

The High Holidays or “Days of Awe” and Rosh Hashanah have just concluded this past week with the solemn fast and deep contemplations of Yom Kippur, and we are about to embark this week (click here for a calendar and brief explanation of this fall’s events) on one of our faith’s most lasting celebrations, Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. Every biblical holiday given to the Jewish people has these three aspects: Israel was commanded to observe the holiday in the present in order to remember something God had done in the past, and because of...

Empowerment Conference in October Saturday, October 13 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. residents will have an opportunity to take part in “Inspiring Our Community: Today, Tomorrow and Always”, a conference sponsored by Mayor Lovely Warren, WDKX Radio and MJS Productions. Please see the attached letter from the Mayor for conference details, workshop descriptions, and information on how to register. You may also use the graphic below to post on your social media platforms. Please feel free to share this information with your ministry networks...

What Is Rosh Hashanah? The Jewish New Year, anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, a day of judgment and coronation, and sounding of the shofar . . . What: It is the birthday of the universe, the day YHWH created Adam and Eve, and it’s celebrated as the head of the Jewish year. When: The first two days of the Jewish new year, Tishrei 1 and 2, beginning at sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1. Rosh Hashanah 2018 begins at sundown on September 9 and continues through nightfall on September 11. How: Candle lighting in the evenings, festive...

It’s books, she says! She has one of the most influential positions in the country, but as a girl who did not grow up privileged, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor credits her incredible journey to one thing. “The key to success in my life, it’s the secret that I want to share with kids and how I became successful. I’m here as a Supreme Court Justice only because of books,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The first Latina Supreme Court Justice spoke to a packed main hall of over 2,000 people at the Walter E. Washington...

Why Do Christians Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles? By: Malcolm Hedding, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 27 Aug 2018 The yearly celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles [also known as Succot] is one of the three great annual and biblically-required festivals; the other two being Passover and Pentecost. These biblical Feasts have great significance in that they all speak of the glorious redemptive plan of God. Passover teaches us about the Door to the Kingdom of God – the salvation from our sins by the spilled blood of a...

Let’s Talk About the Black Abortion Rate In New York City, thousands more black babies are aborted each year than born alive. As Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination tees up another national debate about reproductive rights, is it too much to ask that abortion’s impact on the black population be part of the discussion? When the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973, polling showed that blacks were less likely than whites to support abortion. Sixties-era civil rights activists like Fannie Lou Hamer and Whitney Young had...

Two Hundred Years Later, Frederick Douglass Teaches Us That Fatherhood Still Matters Frederick Douglass, born 200 years ago in 1818, was never completely sure of his father’s identity. All he knew for certain was that his father was a white man who had raped his mother. Yet Douglass would become a loving, devoted father of five, who remained actively involved in the lives of his children and grandchildren for his entire life. Douglass wrote at length about how slaveholders deliberately prevented blacks from forming families and tore them...

An ER Doctor Speaks at a High School Graduation Last week, I delivered the Baccalaureate address at my alma mater North Central High School in Indianapolis. This is what I said to the graduates: In kindergarten, I got a prize in the science fair for painting Play-Doh black. I wedged plastic dinosaurs and saber-tooth tigers in it to make it look like the La Brea tar pits. I think it was in 4th grade when I won a ribbon in the Allisonville grade school pancake supper poster contest. And those two pinnacle moments pretty much sum up the entirety...

Frederick Douglass Speaks Memorial Day honors the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Observed the last Monday of May, it is also known as Decoration Day. It originated in the years following the Civil War. Below is a speech given by Mr. Frederick Douglass at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, on Decoration Day, May 30, 1871. Friends and Fellow Citizens: Tarry here for a moment. My words shall be few and simple. The solemn rites of this hour and place call for no lengthened speech. There is, in the very...